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Are people from Michigan considered a yankee, or is it only the NE? Either way I might have to do a little bashing
If you have all season tires with good tread, look into getting them siped. It helps with with all road conditions including snow covered. It's not quite the same as winter tires, but any little bit is a help. Discount tire does siping, but i'm not sure on pricing. Maybe $40 for all four tires???
My first year here, 1997, I had a 4WD F-150 with great tires.
The first two inch snow, I went for a drive from the Heart of Cary to Garner and back. Down 40 and returned on Tryon Road.
I saw about 8 accidents and incidents in a 22 mile round trip.
I saw cars that could only have ended up where they were due to crazy excessive speed, and/or bald tires.
I really never worry about getting stuck or sliding off the road. I worry much more about getting hit by some knucklehead who has no clue, or who thinks they are ice-driving capable.
Due to infrequency of winter driving events, we have many more RWD vehicles here, and run tires closer to the wear bars, than many people do up north.
The contract with the wife says that I will move back to PA whenever she says we will, but I will have a 4WD upon arrival. My current F150 here is RWD only, and I am comfortable with that. I just don't run it on snow or ice.
I'm looking to replace my 2007 FWD Edge, and will not pay for AWD on the new one. I would want it about every other year, and pay for it the whole time.
The problem isn't the snow down here on the roads. The problem is ice. I'm from NY myself and I see everyone complain come this time of year. The funny thing to me is that when I drive to work, The majority of the vehicles I see in the ditch are the 4 wheel drive kind. Apparently, folks think those work well on ice (I drive one) forgetting that in the North, they salt, etc. Snow driving is fine. We don't snow drive down here though. We ice drive.
One of the scariest driving experiences I've had was while living in the DC area during the 2009 Snowmageddon/Snowpocolapse. And, it actually wasn't during one of the two major storms we had that winter, but one of the smaller events when we only got 5-6 inches. The weather reports said only a few inches, temps were right on the edge, just at/below freezing, so nobody really paid it much attention after the big storm we'd had a few days earlier.
It was a Saturday morning and I was coming back from brunch with a friend during which it had really started falling hard. I can't explain the panic I felt, driving on a three-lane road with a slight hill and seeing the car in front of me loose momentum and starting sliding backwards. The three-lane road turned into one left lane of cars slowly/steadily making their way up and two right lanes of pileup.
My midwestern roots kicked in and I made it home fine, but I really don't care how much they predict...I stay off the roads at any mention of winter weather. Nothing is that important.
The RPM forecasting computer model hammers NC! Asheville to CLT and moving east. Changes the rain to heavy snow along 85 in the upstate. Models are not perfect, but they are definitely bullish on this storm for North Carolina.
One of the scariest driving experiences I've had was while living in the DC area during the 2009 Snowmageddon/Snowpocolapse. And, it actually wasn't during one of the two major storms we had that winter, but one of the smaller events when we only got 5-6 inches. The weather reports said only a few inches, temps were right on the edge, just at/below freezing, so nobody really paid it much attention after the big storm we'd had a few days earlier.
It was a Saturday morning and I was coming back from brunch with a friend during which it had really started falling hard. I can't explain the panic I felt, driving on a three-lane road with a slight hill and seeing the car in front of me loose momentum and starting sliding backwards. The three-lane road turned into one left lane of cars slowly/steadily making their way up and two right lanes of pileup.
My midwestern roots kicked in and I made it home fine, but I really don't care how much they predict...I stay off the roads at any mention of winter weather. Nothing is that important.
You are talking about the January 26, 2011 storm that paralyzed the area because most people fled work in the afternoon AT THE SAME TIME!
Bring it! Snow, not ice! The ice is inevitable, I know.
I used to feel really confident driving in snow and nice, because I'm a yankee - but have lived south for nine years, so no longer confident. Really glad I missed that ice storm. I heard people slept over in my former office - which really would have sucked for my dog.
I looked at an ice scraper yesterday at Target and then walked on by.
I've never understood why everyone runs off to buy perishable food for a snow threat. At least up North you can throw the gallon of milk outside in a snow drift if the power gets knocked out.
Having live here for the the great snow storm (which the forecasters missed) and the great ice storm - each of which left us powerless and basically trapped in our house for the better part of a week - I understand why the reaction here is a bit different than up north. It may seem trivial to those of us who lived in the north, but this area is not well equipped to deal with these events. A little bit of snow and ice wreaks havoc for a little bit of time. A lot of snow and ice can really shut things down for days.
That was actually one of the bigger ones, I think. Its hard to remember. The one I was out in was definitely on a Saturday. I always worked from home if snow was predicted on a week day.
We got two really big storms that winter, and several smaller ones. It was a huge mess!
Last edited by fly_widget; 01-17-2013 at 12:59 PM..
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
9,763 posts, read 15,695,939 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by parkman
There was a storm in late 1999 or early 2000 where we had just a few inches. There ended up being hundreds of accidents. I seem to recall someone did a survey at the time of folks in the accidents and found that about half were from the north, half from the south.
Yeah, the people from the south hit the people from the north. (ducking and running)
My first year here, 1997, I had a 4WD F-150 with great tires.
The first two inch snow, I went for a drive from the Heart of Cary to Garner and back. Down 40 and returned on Tryon Road.
I saw about 8 accidents and incidents in a 22 mile round trip.
I saw cars that could only have ended up where they were due to crazy excessive speed, and/or bald tires.
I really never worry about getting stuck or sliding off the road. I worry much more about getting hit by some knucklehead who has no clue, or who thinks they are ice-driving capable.
Due to infrequency of winter driving events, we have many more RWD vehicles here, and run tires closer to the wear bars, than many people do up north.
The contract with the wife says that I will move back to PA whenever she says we will, but I will have a 4WD upon arrival. My current F150 here is RWD only, and I am comfortable with that. I just don't run it on snow or ice.
I'm looking to replace my 2007 FWD Edge, and will not pay for AWD on the new one. I would want it about every other year, and pay for it the whole time.
I don't even buy awd in Michigan. While it's nice, it doesn't help out as much as proper tires. We got 8" a few weeks back, and my fwd saab with cheap snow tires was passing 4x4 cars on the roads. With awd you are stuck paying extra for gas, premium price, more service for the differential, so in the end it's not really worth it. I've tried to convince my parents but they wont listen.
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The three-lane road turned into one left lane of cars slowly/steadily making their way up and two right lanes of pileup.
(ducking and running) 
